More and more, a company’s website is ever becoming its public face. Web trends show that consumers are doing more research online than ever before when looking to buy. So, if a business has a poorly designed website, that doesn’t work on a mobile device—or worse—they don’t have a website, they’ll lose out on potential business. 

And if they find your website, it needs easy to navigate and quickly understand your value proposition. However, following popular web trends makes it easier to help you portray the most accurate and professional image for your business. 

That’s why design firm Bowen Media has created an infographic that lists this years top five web trends. Most of these trends have already begun to show up in 2014, such as flat design and parallax scrolling. But you can expect to see much more of them in the coming year. Scroll down to read about the potential web trends that are featured in the infographic.

Top 5 web trends of 2015

Mobile focus

• Americans spend an average of 2.5 hours a day on mobile devices
• 57% of consumers will NOT recommend a company with a website that looks bad on a mobile device
• Mobile accounts for 60% of total digital media time spend by Americans
• According to a survey by Google, 48% of users said that if a site didn’t work well on their smartphone, it made them feel like the company didn’t care about their business
• 85% of adults think that a mobile website should be as good or better than their desktop website
• 67% of consumers say that they are more likely to purchase on a website that is mobile friendly
• 90% of people use multiple device screens sequentially

Interactive scrolling

Parallax scrolling originally refers to a technique in 2D video games to show depth by having the background move slower than the foreground. Parallax, while difficult to pull off is highly visually appealing and extremely effective at catching the eye of website visitors. It’s a fantastic technique for visually engaging the user by using layers of images to create a 3D effect.

Parallax design in websites allows you to:

• Show a product in 3D
• Create an engaging 3D timeline
• Guide visitors along a path to a call to action

Infinite scrolling is a web design technique that loads content as the user scrolls to the bottom of the page, which causes to page to grow with additional content.

• Website visitors scroll on web pages 76% of the time
• With the advent of touch screens, scrolling has become more and more natural than clicking
• 66% of mobile users find that websites load too slowly. Infinite scrolling cuts down on website loading times by allowing the website to load content little by little.

Flat design

Flat design features clean design with open spaces, crisp edges, bright colours and 2D illustrations without 3D effects.

Why flat design works:

• Gives websites a clean, polished look
• Easy-to-use design
• Works seamlessly with responsive design
• Faster load times

In a survey of web professionals, 68% said flat design was here to stay, while 9% said it was only a passing fad.

Single page

• All content on one page
• Easy navigation
• Condensed, scannable, attractive content
• Works great on mobile

With one page websites, it’s better to tell stories with visuals rather than text.

• The average attention span of an adult online is 8 seconds
• The ability to quickly communicate your brand to viewers becomes invaluable
• Concise, scannable and objective content results in 124% better usability

Clean, simple layout

Emphasis on high-quality photography:

• 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual
• 40% of people will respond better to visual information rather than plain text
• Consumers are 40% more likely to engage with brands that integrate high-quality, professional photography into their website
• In eCommerce, 67% of consumers say the quality of product photography is very important in their purchasing decisions

Emphasis on layout:

• Cleaning out clutter brings out the goal of your website
• Clean, simple websites are easier to navigate
• Use minimal text; tell the story with imagery

Bigger emphasis on typography:

• Typography is playing a bigger and bigger role in setting the mood and tone of the website

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Now that you know how to structure your website, discover the website colour trends for 2015.

Source: http://visual.ly/top-5-web-design-trends-2015